Filipinos urged to visit local destinations

“I would like to encourage our kababayans to continue traveling. We all know what precautions to take, just be conscious of your cleanliness, washing of hands, face masks,” he said. (Pixabay photo)

MANILA— Traveling around the Philippines remains safe, the Tourism Congress of the Philippines (TCP) said on Tuesday as it urged Filipinos to turn their attention on local destinations as concerns on international travel envelop the world amid the 2019-novel coronavirus outbreak.

“The Philippines is still safe and we have to remember, the figures are not as bad as far as mortality rate is concerned. (The 2019-nCoV) only has a 2 percent mortality rate while SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) had 10 and the MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) had 35,” TCP president Jojo Clemente said in a Tuesday interview with CNN Philippines.

“I would like to encourage our kababayans to continue traveling. We all know what precautions to take, just be conscious of your cleanliness, washing of hands, face masks,” he said.

Clemente said the TCP already met with some industry partners and one of the discussions include the strong promotion of domestic travel.

“Domestic travel is something (that is) definitely in the works, it will probably be the market that we will depend on for the next few weeks or months,” he said.

Days after Beijing imposed a ban on all outbound tour groups to contain the virus, the Philippines followed suit and imposed travel restrictions on all foreigners who had a travel history to China and its special administrative regions.

In the Philippines where Chinese tourists account for 22 percent of foreign arrivals, the outbreak is seen to affect the country’s inbound tourism worse.

“We expect the China market to dwindle for the next three weeks or month,” Clemente said.

Although less than what the TCP anticipated, Clemente said there were already few cancelations from Manila’s main markets like South Korea, Japan, and some Western countries.

The Department of Tourism (DOT), meanwhile, said it will continue working with stakeholders and health authorities to assure that livelihoods reliant on tourism will return to normal.

“Right now, the priority is really to make sure that we coordinate very closely with the health authorities. When you look at the bigger picture, what you really want is that tourism activities are normalized, not as soon as possible but when we’re given the green light,” DOT Undersecretary Benito Bengzon Jr.

said in the same Tuesday interview.

“After our health authorities have addressed the issues, our commitment is to make sure that we bring back livelihood at the community level,” he said.